The lessons of losing

rugbyIQ.com's Gary Gold looks back at South Africa's recent trip to Australasia and how the Springboks can return to winning ways in the remainder of the 2010 Tri-Nations. 

After 24 hours of flying we returned home to SA shores to an understandably frosty reception earlier this week.

To say that the tour was not a success would be the understatement of the year. And while many of you rugby supporters are understandably annoyed and irritated with the team's performances, it is our responsibility - and job - to not get caught up in a wave of emotion but, rather, objectively and systematically go about fixing the problem. Something which Peter de Villiers, as the head coach, is very good at doing. 

I am going to stay away from quoting all the many clichés pertaining to how much one learns in defeat and from failure. However, at the same time, it is important to mention that they are clichés because they are, indeed, true.

I believe that the cardinal rule about learning from our losses is that we need to focus our time and attention on the issues that we can control - in so doing we need to be honest and harsh about the things that we have done wrong; as an entire group. That said, I truly believe whilst there certainly were other external factors that aided our poor performances, spending time moaning and deliberating over these issues is counter-productive and takes our focus away from fixing the areas of our game that we can control. 

An exercise like this is an interesting one, and one that can be derailed if we are to read, or believe, the many opinions from the media and over-zealous supporters at present - as it might focus too much attention on those specific areas we cannot have a direct control over.

For example, it is the popular view that we kicked too much in our three matches in Australasia... In fact, upon reflection of the match statistics against New Zealand (in both matches) they actually kicked more ball out of hand than we did. However, what is unquestionable is that their kicks - in their intentions and execution - were all superior to those of ours. Their kicks were on target more often and their chase was aggressive and accurate; in fact, their entire kicking strategy put us under similar pressure to what we did to them last year. 

You see, friends, what is really important is that we get to the bottom of whether our intended strategy and plan is wrong, as is widely report, or simply our execution. I believe the latter. Our kicks were generally inaccurate, we chased and aligned poorly and then failed on far too many occasions to make the first-time tackle intended to pin them deep in their own 22 - which, of course, exerts pressure and hopefully leads to turnovers. That is why I firmly believe, and clearly like NZ do, that the strategy is good - but on this tour our execution was far below our acceptable standard.

Another common view reported is that as a team we have not advanced with the game to the same level that Australia and New Zealand have. Again, there is an interesting irony of a theory that I would like to share with you.

At last November's SANZAR conference; the Super 14 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were told in no uncertain terms that four areas of the game (something which we have spoken about in previous blogs) were going to be heavily policed and teams not adhering to the refreshed interpretations of these four areas would be heavily penalised and thus be left behind. (The area that was most significantly going to be managed, would be the breakdown - with particular attention to the defending team allowing the attacking team to generate quick ball.) 

There is no doubt that South Africa's Super 14 teams - through some astute coaching - adapted magnificently; an example of that is the team that conceded the most penalties in the 2010 Super 14 were the Crusaders, followed by the Hurricanes. In all, the Crusaders conceded 90 penalties; of those 75 penalties were conceded whilst on defence - mainly against effecting opposition from gaining quick ball.

As we know, the Super 14 culminated in two SA sides meeting in the final and I am sure none of our Antipodean teams would disagree that they were the two best teams throughout the competition. 

How then, can it be possible that a few weeks later a Springbok team - made up largely of these same players - are now being accused of not 'keeping up' with how the game has advanced?

And, here lies the irony... 

SANZAR instructed and initiated the new law interpretations and used 17 referees - from Australia, NZ and SA only - in 99 Super Rugby matches this season. Yet, to date, not one of those 17 referees have featured in the Tri-Nations (until this weekend - with our very own Craig Joubert in charge in Melbourne).

And, so, perhaps, a fairer accusation against us is not so much that we have not been able to adapt to how the game moves forward, but rather we should have adapted to the fact that the game would be going 'backwards' - and by 'backwards' I mean not according to the new interpretations. That - for me - is something we will need to address if I am, at all, correct in my observation. 

Much has also been spoken about the deterioration of our defence and here we stand defenceless - literally - after conceding ten tries in three matches. In last year's Tri-Nations, we conceded just 11 in the entire competition (in six matches). This is an area we will be giving massive attention to in the coming weeks as we build up to our next game in Soweto.

The team has always prided itself in its strong defence and in the past that strong defence has given us a favourable reward by being able to turn over opposition ball. I am confident that we can rectify it.

Whilst our performances have not been up to scratch in recent weeks, I simply cannot wait to get back into camp and, along with the rest of the group, work towards ending the Tri-Nations on a high.

We are a tight squad under Pete's leadership and nobody will shirk the hard work as we look to rectify our performances. Everybody in the Bok squad is very passionate about what they do, and how they do it, and there is a great camaraderie between everyone - all of whom have one goal; Bok victories. 

Thanks for your support - until next week friends,

Gary Gold | rugbyIQ.com coach // read more posts by Gary